June 10/09 10:39 am - Tour de Beauce: Stage 2 UPDATES

Posted by Editoress on 06/10/09

Stage 2: Thetford Mines to Thetford Mines, 161 km

There are 3 KOM's and 2 Sprints on today's route

A cold (12 C ) and foggy morning. Heavy rain off and on through the night has now been reduce to a light drizzle. The clouds are low, so this may be the case all day. This is a new course, so it is not know how the teams will approach it. Some of them may be looking for some action and maybe a stage win having missed out on the action yesterday, but some may be cautious due to the weather and condition of the roads.

10:40am: At 23 km in, the pack is all together. It has stopped raining, but the roads are still quite wet, and ROUGH. rough even for Beauce, which is known fo it rough roads.

At 30 km, after a series of unsuccessful atempts, 2 riders were able to get away and hold a gap. Darren Lapthorne (Rapha Condor) and Peter Stetina (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin U23) slowly gapped the peloton by 50 seconds. Phillip Cortes (Garneau-Club Chaussure) jumped away and joined them.

11am: Now at 40 km and the gap is up to 2 min

11:24 am: They are now at the 2nd KOM (50 km) and the gap is 3:50. BMC has now gone to the front of the peloton and are working. Cortes wins KOM.

11:35 am: The peloton is now at the 60 km mark and the gap to the leaders is holding at 3:50

11:55 am: At 70 km now and the gap is 5:15. BMC still at the front of the peloton. Darren Lapthorne is now the leader (on the raod) of the Tour de Beauce.

12:15pm: A bridge at the 82 km mark was asessed to be too dangerous to ride across, so the officials neutralized the race. The riders in the break were stopped, they then waited for the peloton to arrive and everyone then walked across the bridge. The race was then restarted with the break having a lead of 5:05

100 km Feed Zone

12:45 pm: 101 km in, 60 to go. BMC is at the front of the peloton and it is strung out along the road. Gap to the break now has 4:30.

1:10 pm: 47 km to go. Gap is 4 min

1:20 pm: 38 km to go, gap below 4 min

1:35 pm: 25 km to go, gap is now down to 3:20. Colombian National Team and Planet Energy have joined BMC in the chase

1:43 pm: 20 km to go, gap 2:35

1:47 pm: 16 km to go and the gap is 2:05. Planet Energy doing a lot of work to bring down the gap and has 4 riders at the front of the pelton

1:52 pm: 13 km to go, gap 1:54

1:56pm: 10 km to go gap 1:40

2:05pm: They are now doing a small circuit in the town of Thetford Mines. With 2 km to go the gap is 30 seconds - it is going to be close. Planet Energy is doing a lot of work at the front to bring it back.

Lapthorn attacks and takes the win. Cortes and Stetina cross just metres in front of the pelton